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75
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V . 36
no. 25
December
14, 2011
Spi lyay Ty moo
C o yo te News, est. 1976
December 14, 2011
Voi. 36, No. 25
P.0. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
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Economic initiative promotes local business Drones,
By Duran Bobb
S pilyay Tymoo
As part of a plan to boost public
outreach, Kahseuss Jackson presented
tribal members with an overview of
the Economic Stewardship Initiative
last week. Jackson was recently hired
as the new Economic Development
Coordinator.
“There are four Economic Steward
ship goals,” he said. “Increasing tribal
and private business revenue, increas
ing the number of enterprise and pri
vate business jobs, creating a vibrant
small business sector, and developing
and improving infrastructures support
ing enterprises and private businesses.”
The initiative began about three
years ago with a series o f interviews
conducted with people in the commu
nity.
“Based on those interviews, Clint
Jacks and Teresa Hogue (both at the
time working for Oregon State Univer
sity) took the information and started
to develop a framework,” Jackson said.
“This evolved into the Economic Stew
ardship Initiative.”
Tribal Council has since invested $10
million into economic stewardship.
Six million dollars went to the Busi-
ness In vestm en t R evo lvin g Fund
(BIRF), providing funds for loans to
launch, expand and/or support tribal
enterprises.
Two m illion went to the Private
Business Revolving Fund (PBRF) for
loans to launch, expand, and/or sup
port private businesses. And $2 mil
lion went to the Capacity Building Fund
to insure support for planning, devel
oping policies and procedures, and cre
ating an infrastructure needed to de
velop businesses and jobs.
Leveraging the Capacity Building
Fund, the Small Business Center was
also set up to support developing suc
cessful private businesses, Jackson
said. This center serves as a pipeline
to a range o f services, assisting new
Kahseuss Jackson
and existing business leaders in sev
eral ways.
“Small businesses are an important
part of the economy on the reserva
tion. If there are barriers that prevent
people from pursuing opportunities that
they would like to pursue, our job is to
create a pathway towards some of
the resources that they might need.”
Jackson appears well equipped
to lead the tribes’ economic devel
opment efforts. Since 2001, he has
held positions including: Salmon
M arketing Program Coordinator
with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission (CRITFC), Busi
ness Development Manager with
Warm Springs Ventures; and Bud
get Manager at the Warm Springs
IHS Clinic.
He has a Bachelors degree in
Business Adm inistration, focusing
on entrepreneurship, and minor in
Economics, as well as a M asters
degree in Business Adm inistration
(MBA), all from the University of
Oregon.
He also created and launched
Celilo Business Solutions, which of
fered high-level, contemporary and
focused analysis and business solu
tions to tribal entities.
See JACKSON on 3
L ig h ts
P arad e
Over 1,000 people attended the
annual Lights Parade and Christmas
Tree lighting, were held the evening
of Dec. 1 at the Community Cen
ter.
The number of parade floats in
creased this year, and The Peanuts
themed float created by the IHS
Clinic staff took home the first-
place trophy.
Added to the event this year were
the bonfire and the performance of
Peace Came in a Cradle play, written
by Carol Allison and directed by
Lucinda Green. “I was asked to
write the play using culture from
Warm Springs. In past years it has
been performed at Lucinda’s Christ
mas at her house,” explained Allison.
Duran Bobb/Spilyay
Warm Springs youth joined Santa on the Early Childhood Education Float
Casino manager oversees gaming transition
By Dave McMechan
S pilyay Tymoo
Declining revenue has been a seri
ous problem for the tribes in recent
years. Timber revenue and power rev
enue are down, as they have been for
years, reflecting the national economy.
The Cascade Locks casino has been
delayed indefinitely, and many would
say, unfairly.
Meanwhile, the tribes have relied on
income from legal settlements, invest
ments, and reserve funds to maintain
essential services to the membership.
And these funds are being depleted,
bringing budget cuts and job layoffs.
The picture is bleak, but there is
hope, as the new Indian Head Casino
will open early next year. It is hard to
overstate how important the casino will
be for the tribes.
New manager joins
The m anager of the casino, Ken
Billingsley, has been on the job for
about a month. He has a temporary
office at Kah-Nee-Ta, which he is us
ing until he moves to the new casino.
By his desk at Kah-Nee-Ta is a sign
with the message: “Perfection is de
manded. Excellence is accepted.” This
summarizes his philosophy for how the
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è
new Indian Head Casino must oper
ate.
“We have to provide an experience
for our customers that they never for
get,” Billingsley says, “one that keeps
them coming back again and again.”
The location and design of the new
casino are excellent, he said, but cus
tomer service will be the key to the
casino’s success.
“From the people out front who
meet the guests, to the people in the
back who may not be seen as much,
we start w ith custom er se rv ic e ,”
Billingsley says.
He says this about the new gaming
enterprise: “The casino belongs to
each and every enrolled member of the
tribes, and I’d like for them to take
pride in this new venture.”
Challenging work
Billingsley joined Indian Head Ca
sino as general manager in mid Novem
ber. With the transition under-way from
Kah-Nee-Ta to the new location, his job
has been challenging.
He puts in 12- to 16-hour work
days, usually arriving at his office at 6
a.m. or before. “Eight hours a day
would not get us to where we need to
be,” he says.
He does not complain about the
long work hours, as he’s enjoying the
attended high school in Madras. For
a time he worked with the Warm
Springs gaming enterprise back in
1996, shortly after the tribes opened
the first Indian Head Casino.
Since then he has gained exten
sive experience in the Indian gam
ing industry. He worked for the past
11 years as the regional director for
the National Indian Gaming Com
mission, with his office in Arizona.
In that job he was responsible for
overseeing compliance with the In
dian Gaming Regulatory Act for
over 55 casinos, working with 33
tribes in the Southwest region.
_____________________
V
Ken Billingsley
challenge. Recently, he’s been hiring
and training managers who will direct
the different areas of the new casino.
He’s working on issues related to sepa
rating Kah-Nee-Ta Resort from the
gaming enterprise, and he’s organizing
the physical move from Kah-Nee-Ta
to Indian Head. As part o f the move,
planned for January, more than 320
gaming machines will be transported
from Kah-Nee-Ta to the new casino.
Billingsley, a Standing Rock Lakota
member, grew up in Warm Springs. He
New day for gaming
The new Indian Head Casino will
be open 24-hours a day, with em
ployees working in three shifts. This
will be new, as the current casino
operates about 16 hours a day with
two shifts. Besides just gaming, there
will be a 120-seat restaurant, the
Cedar Basket Gift Shop, Players
Club Room, the Tule Grill, among
other features.
Construction is on schedule, with
dedication day set for February 4,
2012, and the grand opening will be
later in the month. And then, “Gam
ing is going to be much different for
the tribes,” said Billing
obstacles
for the
reservation
By Duran Bobb
S pilyay Tymoo
With time running out, a call is made
to the reservation from search and res
cue teams on Mt. Hood.
Within minutes, a probe is launched
from the M eto liu s B ench, flyin g
through subzero tem peratures and
scanning for signs of life in the terrain
below.
Although the missing hiker on the
ground cannot see or hear the probe
in the sky, the drone can see the hiker
through specialized lenses.
Within hours, the person is saved
and the tribes are once again mentioned
in national news.
That’s just one possible scenario, if
the tribes successfully enter the un
manned aerial systems market. Other
applications include defense, aiding
firefighters, delivery of time sensitive
materials, and combating drug traffick
ing over federal lands.
The Department o f Defense has
adopted the term Unmanned Aerial
System (UAS) for what many com
monly consider to be specialized re
mote controlled planes.
The latest figures show that 50 com
panies, universities and government
organizations are developing and pro
ducing some 155 unmanned aircraft
designs this year, according to the FAA.
The first experiments with UAS tech
nology were attempted in 1916. Later,
the U.S. used unmanned craft during
the Vietnam War.
Estimates on the increase in global
spending for UAS technology by the
year 2017 are anywhere from $5 to $7
billion. The Defense Department has
secured budgeting for UAS projects, as
the military has discovered the remote
controlled drones are a less expensive
way to provide defense and deterrent.
Test flights
Before UAS techn olo gy can be
m anufactured, units m ust be flight
tested. This is where the reservation
has competitive advantage, as most of
the reservation is open airspace.
In February, Sen. Ron Wyden spon
sored a bill that pushed for an increase
in the number of testing sites for un
manned aerial vehicles from four to six.
The Senate-passed bill still needs to be
reconciled with the House version be
fore going to the President.
This means the race is on in a multi
billion per year industry, as groups rush
to meet the strict qualifications outlined
by the FAA in order to obtain a Certifi
cate of Authorization.
UAV test flights must be conducted
or sponsored by a public entity. The
FAA defines a public entity as “The
Department of Defense and its mili
tary branches; other local, state and
federal government agencies; and state
universities.”
Technically, the tribes have not yet
applied to become a public entity with
the FAA.
“We had a conference call with the
FAA and let them know of our inten
tions to become designated as a public
entity,” said Jeff Anspach, chief execu
tive officer for Warm Springs Ventures.
While the FAA’s definition of ‘pub
lic entity’ does not specifically name
tribal governments, some feel the des
ignation may have potential conse
quences with tribal sovereignty for sta
tuses other than that of public entity.
See UAS TESTING on 3
University of Oregon Library
Received on: 12-19-11
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